


BONES

by DestinyLeane



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2019-10-10
Packaged: 2020-11-28 17:20:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20970206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinyLeane/pseuds/DestinyLeane
Summary: Spinel learns about bones.





	BONES

Steven sat on the couch next to Spinel while they watched television.   
He held his arms out and cracked his knuckles nonchalantly before leaning back in the couch and making himself more comfortable. 

Spinel whipped her head to face him a look of shock and horror on her face. 

"What was that?!" She yelped, glancing at his hands. Steven blinked, confused by what she meant. 

"Nothing?" He answered, Spinel shook her head in reject before grabbing his and and shaking it at him. 

"What did you do to your hand?!" She questioned, concern growing as she tried to ask him what was wrong.   
Steven pulled his hand back, inspecting it before it finally clicked. 

"Oh! I was cracking my knuckles!" He laughed, amused by the gem's reaction.   
She relaxed, and held up her own hand.   
Knuckles, what is a knuckle and why did he crack them? She grabbed her finger and looked at him questioning if she had the right idea. 

"Is this a knuckle?" She asked, pointing at her finger. Steven shook his head, holding back a chuckle. 

"No, this is where a knuckle is, it's a bone." He grabbed her hand and pressed his finger where the top of her palm met her finger.   
Spinel stared at her hand, still confused by what he was saying. 

"What's a bone?" She glanced at him, blushing intensely as he burst out in laughter.   
He had forgotten how most gems knew so little about organic beings, it would be a treat to explain it to her. 

"Bones are like...sticks your body makes to help it work and protect important organs. Every human has bones. Animals too." He explained, Spinel nodded, though his explanation didn't do much to satisfy her curiosity. 

"Are they like armor?" She asked, trying to find the closest thing she could think of.

"Well, sometimes, but not for humans, they help up keep our forms, kind of like your gem." He replied, gently touching her gem. Spinel leaned back, somewhat uncomfortable by the concept. 

"Humans have bones...do I have bones?" She murmured to herself. Steven's attention was turned elsewhere though, to Amethyst who had left her room and was rummaging through the cabinet for food. 

"Yo, what's up?" She asked, plopping on the couch next to the two of them. Spinel looked the gem up and down, did she have no bones also? 

"I'm telling Spinel about bones." Steven answered, nudging the pink gem gently. Amethyst nodded, shoving a handful of chaaps in her mouth before speaking. 

"Yeah bones are weird, one time Greg broke one." 

Spinel turned to the gem, her eyes wide with horror at the thought, then she turned back to Steven. 

"You can break them?! But they are inside you! And you're like a meat sack." She poked the boy, demonstrating his very squishy and not poofable body.   
Steven grabbed her hand and pulled it away from his side, trying not to cry from his laughter, curse his ticklish nature. 

"They can heal over time, but I healed my dad with my spit." He giggled, Spinel nodded slowly, glancing back at Amethyst. 

"We don't have bones." She deadpanned, causing the purple gem to burst out in laughter. What was so funny? They didn't, was that why she could stretch easily? Gems didn't come with bones, just gems. 

"Yeah, we don't but we do sort of copy the way human bones work." Amethyst retorted, providing an example as she bent her knees and elbows. Spinel watched intently, she wanted bones.   
She didn't have any bones.   
Spinel frowned and began to deflate sliding off the couch into a puddle on the floor. 

"I want bones..." she meekly mumbled, almost in tears at the thought of being too different from her friends. She was stretchy and elastic and never even contemplated the possibility of joints. 

Steven leaned over, looking down at the distraught gem. 

"I guess..you can pretend to have bones?" He offered, the gem opened her eyes with a soft smile before snapping to her feet. 

"Okay! I have bones now!" She grinned glancing back at Steven for approval, he had his hand to his chin, inspecting her closely. The boy stood and approached her, grabbing her arm and trailing his hand along it.   
The arm drooped like rubber in his grasp and he shook his head. 

"No, bones have specific joints where they meet to bend, you're too bendy." 

He grabbed somewhere in the middle of her arm and bent it, causing her to creen her neck to see what he was doing. 

"Here, this can be your elbow," he moved further down, "and your wrist. And your hand!" He stepped back leaving the gem and her awkwardly bent arm to see if he had the anatomy in the general range of being correct. 

"And your legs are just like your arms. But you can only bend them to where they are straight, and you can't stretch them or anything." 

Spinel's smile faded and she frowned, disconcerted by the advent of bones. She looked at Steven who was nodding in affirmation at his mostly precise anatomy. 

"I don't like this."


End file.
